Industry news: deals down, mobile ads up

Deal-making among pharmas fell 18% in 2011 amid a round of belt-tightening, according to UK advisory PharmaCentures, which found that licensing deals fell 16% even as M&A activity remained robust, with deal values rising 30% but benchmark payments becoming more commonplace. Oncology-based deals continue to dominate, the firm said, with Roche leading the pack, and emerging markets were a hive of activity as large pharmas sought to strengthen their operations in China and India.

US mobile adspend across all sectors soared 89% to $1.45 billion in 2011, according to an eMarketer report which projects spending to rise to nearly $11 billion in the next five years. This year's spike was prompted in part by the rapid ascension of Google's mobile search advertising business, advertisers' growing attraction to display inventory on tablet and smartphone devices and the growing roster of mobile ad networks such as Google's AdMob, Apple's iAd and Millennial Media. Search advertising more than doubled in 2011, the firm said, to $652 million, and will top $1.28 billion for 2012. EMarketer forecast mobile display advertising spend to grow 93% to $861 million for the year and for mobile video ad spend to rise 122% to $151 million in 2012.